Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders

***DISCLAIMER***
The following review is entirely my opinion. If you comment (which I
encourage you to do) be respectful. If you don't agree with my opinion
(or other commenters),
that's fine. To each their own. These reviews
are not meant to be statements of facts or endorsements, I am just
sharing my opinions and my perspective when watching the film and is
not meant to reflect how these films should be viewed. Finally, the
reviews are given on a scale of 0-5. 0, of course, being
unwatchable. 1, being terrible. 2, being not great. 3, being okay.
4, being great and 5, being epic! And if you enjoy these reviews
feel free to share them and follow the blog or follow me on
Twitter (@RevRonster) for links to my reviews and the occasional
live-Tweet session of the movie I'm watching! A never-ending "Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na Batman!" played in my head while I wrote this review.

Batman:Return of the
Caped Crusader – 3 out of 5

Besides not paying bills, one of the fondest memories I have
as a child growing up is having my afternoon time spent with Batman.Every day when I got home from school I would
watch reruns of the 60s Batman series with Adam West while waiting for
Batman:The Animated Series to come
on.I had an absolute blast watching
that old series and it ends up holding a special place in my heart.I haven’t really revisited the show since
those days other than an occasion glimpse here and there but when I saw that
the DC was going to have an animated version with Batman:Return of the Caped Crusaders, I was pretty
excited.

Animating Adam West means we are one step closer to providing this national treasurewith immortality!

You can insert your own Nickelback joke here if you feellike it. I'm not going to do it.

While watching their favorite show at stately Wayne Manor,
Bruce Wayne (Adam West) and Dick Grayson (Burt Ward) learn that The Joker (Jeff
Bergman), The Penguin (William Salyers), The Riddler (Wally Wingert) and
Catwoman (Julie Newmar) have teamed together.A part of their plan involves the use of a multiplier ray and Catwoman
using a drug that will take control of Batman.The heroes thwart the villains but Batman starts to act oddly and
decides the entire city of Gotham isn’t acting according to his steadfast
ethical ideas and decides to use the ray on himself and take the city
over.Now Robin must team together with
Catwoman in order to save the city and change Batman back.

When I was a kid, this was the coolest car ever. Actually, it still ranks prettyhigh up there.

Return of the Caped Crusaders is a pretty fun animated movie
from DC.It’s a delightful return to a
time when the property wasn’t afraid of being campy and before DC decided that
Batman can only exist in the realm of the dark and gritty.The problem that arises from this is that
this feature is all about getting that nostalgia itch and sometimes nostalgia
isn’t the best thing in the world.

Just the idea of using the word "spork" for a fight sound effect floored me.

The strongest aspects about this feature is the fact it has
a great voice acting cast that involves some returning stars from the show in
the form of West, Ward and Newmar but also blends in some tried and true voice
acting talent (and also sees Thomas Lennon come in and take over for Chief
O’Hara).The film also fills its story
with a lot of fun references and gags that poke fun at the original series (but
in a harmless and playful way).Finally,
the film captures the very essence of what the show was and works all of its
tropes exceptionally well.

Seriously, this film put in a lot of great references and gags to the original seriesand the mythology of Batman in general and it's fantastic!

The downsides of Return of the Caped Crusaders are
simple.While the voice acting of
Bergman and Salyers as The Joker and The Penguin respective isn’t terrible, I
really didn’t feel that either man sounded like Cesar Romero and Burgess
Meredith.Granted, there are moments
where they do emulate them well but, for a majority of the time, I really
didn’t feel like their likeness was captured.This was a bit distracting when you have original cast members
returning.However, I will add that
Wally Wingert absolutely nailed impersonating Frank Gorshin.

This moment of having a bunch of classic villains show up was pretty awesome, I gotta say!

Another issue I had with the film is that it starts to drag
and feel a bit tedious by the final act.At this point the nostalgia factor wore off for me and all the gags and
satirical send-ups of the show’s tropes started to feel a tad repetitive.The original series episodes were 25 minute
adventures (not including the movie) and this adaptation is a little over an
hour.When the running length is
factored into a story that already kinda felt all over the place and not really
nailed down and focused, it made for an experience that is fun when it starts
but starts to grow tiresome as the credits start to approach.

For example, this joke was done one too many times.

While there were some problems I had with Batman:Return of the Caped Crusaders, the overall
experience was fairly pleasant.I really
enjoyed the nostalgia spike it gave me at the beginning, it’s was genuinely
funny, it has a great attention to details, and I loved how the animation is
reflective of DC’s other animated movies.Will this one hold the same place in my heart that the original series has
or end up being seen in semi-regular manner the same way the ’66 movie is?Nah, but I still had some fun with what it
was.

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About Me

I'm a geek, an atheist (who is also an ordained reverend), a peanut butter and jelly enthusiast, a man who shares the same name with a popular character from "Parks & Rec" and feels he can't live up to the awesomeness of the fictional character, was proudly banned from Reddit, an occasional Shakespearean performer, and a stand up comic.
Have any questions, recommendations or wanna share any theories on various movies? Email me at RevRonMovies@gmail.com and I'll talk about them on my new Q&A segment!